Warning: Professor John Ashton fears private schools could become 'reservoirs of disease'

Britain's 600,000 children at private schools face the greatest risk from the measles outbreak and could pose a health threat to the rest of the population, a leading doctor has warned.

Professor John Ashton claimed a mix of large numbers of middle-class children who were not vaccinated against measles following the MMR scare in the 1990s, along with pupils from overseas with unknown health records, meant schools could become 'reservoirs of disease'.

The professor, who represents the UK's
public health doctors, told the Daily Telegraph the risk was similar to
that from groups such as gypsies and travellers, who have previously
spread the disease.

He said: 'You've got a lot of
middle-class, well-off parents, large numbers of whom did not have their
children immunised because of the [Andrew] Wakefield scare [the discredited
doctor who linked the MMR vaccine to autism] - which was a very middle-class
phenomenon.

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'Layered
on top of that you have got a lot of children from abroad, especially
from the Far East, from countries such as Hong Kong and China, and there
are few checks being done to establish their immunisation records.'

He said private schools were a 'law unto themselves', and warned both pupils and the wider population were being put at risk from infectious diseases because the schools do not have proper policies to protect children and are bad at keeping adequate medical records of pupils from abroad.

Prof Ashton, who will soon become president of the Faculty of Public Health, added: "The danger is that you have a population that can potentially become a reservoir of infection.

'Normally when you are talking about subsections of the population that are at particular risk of disease outbreaks, such as measles, you are talking about groups like gypsies and travellers.

'But actually children in private schools, and in particular boarding schools, are one of the categories most at risk.'

He urged independent schools to check immunisation records of overseas pupils as a matter of urgency, and advised them to 'engage with' families who refused to vaccinate their children.

Sick child: There has been an epidemic in Wales with cases in the greater Swansea area certain to pass the 1,000 mark over the weekend

Dr David Elliman, an immunisation specialist from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said he believed there was a high chance that an outbreak of measles would occur at an independent school, saying health officials were braced for such a crisis, the Telegraph reported.

First victim? Gareth Williams was found dead at his home in Port Tennant

Prof Ashton's warning comes as health chiefs launched a major in-school vaccination drive across three counties neighbouring a region battling a measles epidemic.

Thousands of unprotected children are being targeted as part of an exhaustive four week programme to stop the disease spreading in South Wales.

The number of measles sufferers in the greater Swansea area looks certain to pass the 1,000 mark over the weekend.

Four local hospitals will host drop-in vaccination clinics today, for the fourth consecutive Saturday.

Vital vaccination sessions will also continue in a number of Swansea and Neath and Port Talbot schools next week.

A parallel programme is now being rolled out across three counties to the west of the city.

It
comes as a major £20 million vaccination programme was announced in
England targeting one million unprotected children and teenagers.

Gareth Williams, 25, from Swansea, may be the first victim of the epidemic after he was found dead at his flat in Port Tennant.

Further tests have been ordered on Mr Williams after a post-mortem proved inclusive.